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I think you miss the point here. It doesn't take very many people willing to work for less than "a living wage" to skew the market. Rather like the odd distressed house sale in a street dropping the value of all the other properties. I'm not arguing here for high uncompetitive wages, just pointing out the obvious dishonesty in Labour's policies. They are saying one thing to their traditional supporters whilst pursuing policies that can only hugely disadvantage them. Their complete silence on the EU says it all - like Rotherham it's something Guardian readers can't talk about rationally if at all, because - to them - the truth is ugly! Labour (and what's left of the LDs) are no longer rational political parties, they're fully certified religions! For goodness sake don't apologise for raising "inflammatory" points. Rational discussion is what has been lacking in this town for many decades. Lots more please! On the EU: all the LD's can come up to justify membership is the "three million jobs" that will be lost if we leave. This isn't scaremongering then? (Ignore the fact that the guy who actually did the counting says the loss claim is nonsense.) There are few if any economic benefits (providing you're not a politico). Name a single advantage that we'd not get from a simple customs union, and I will quote you ten disadvantages of membership. The EU boils down to paying lots of money in to a central bureaucracy in the hope that you might get a little back here or there. But the gotcha is that you only get it back if you agree to play the bureaucrats silly games. This week it's hunt the big vacuum cleaner. Its all about a "post democratic society". Not a new idea really; I think Stalin and Hitler filed patents! Sure you have elections, but the people you elect get to sit in a shiny expensive building and talk endlessly, whilst the commission (commissariat?) do the actual ruling. However flawed Westminster is there's the distinct possibility that the electorate can push for change, and even say no to wars that the ruling elites scheme at in order to extend their power-base (Ukraine anyone?) Whether you look at it economically or socially, the EU fails miserably as a way of directing society to a better future. And, as far as the UK is concerned, it is predicated on a lie: we voted for an economic union and got a political one. We now know that you can't have one without the other - or so the politicos hope. So, the next best thing is a simple customs union. Yes, please, politicos. Why exactly are we waiting if it's not to con us yet again? (Oh, and look Mr Cameron; one of your own has just said that he's had insider info that's exactly what you are planning.) That's the UKIP position, plain and simple.

I was wondering where Cher was for a few seconds - until, it came to me that this must be the tolerant face of Islam. The one we must all embrace in the name of PC-loony-left multiculturalism! Was that Rotherham?

Come on Tony that's a generalisation! What exactly are UKIP saying that isn't true or is pure scaremongering? If a few of our politicos had pointed out a few of the problems a bit earlier we wouldn't be in some of the messes we are now. Was old Enoch Powell scaremongering when he warned us about uncontrolled immigration and blood on the streets? Hugh Gaitskell (and others in old Labour) put out several warnings about joining The Common Market only to have their own Loony-Liberal-Lefties completely ignore them in their rush to get onto the Euro gravy train. Was he wrong too? UKIPs policy on the EU is pretty much what old Labour's was. It's New Labour that is standing on its head, and pretending that its traditional supporters aren't going to have to pay a heavy price! Once we could have voted Labour to stop the mad rush to Euro integration by big-business types in the Tory party. No more! There's only one party that ordinary working people can vote for and that's UKIP! So he's scaremongering is he? Is Labour telling you this, or is it just burying it's head in the sand and hoping it's traditional supporters won't notice that they are being screwed over? Yes, the truth is out there, but you get at it by rational discussion, and not by misrepresenting what others stand for!

The Trust might like to create an entry in the new directory. Note that ANY member should be able to create directory entries though it might take a short while for links to be approved as relevant to local people. There's also the facility to edit your links, so you don't have to get it 100% right on the first attempt, so just do it!

Remember the "Good day to bury bad news"? I mean who would have thought an honest politico would ever have stooped to such a thing? Well, today we have a UK threat level raised to 'severe' day. But the small print says no intelligence to suggest an attack is "imminent". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28986271 A cynic could be forgiven for thinking that these things always occur when highly inconvenient headlines are turning up on the news. From fibbing about the threat it's only a small step to indirectly bringing-on an "event" though channels - all carefully screened by the Official Secrets Act of course! That's the only thing which still commands the death penalty (if you disregard the possibility of completely bypassing due legal process). No wonder Harold Wilson became increasingly paranoid the more he learned about how the system really works! The man in the UK street might be asking who go us into such "threat situations" in the first place. A further layer of intrigue, or just total and utter incompetence? My money is on the latter.

One of those places is Labour Controlled Ultra-PC Rotherham! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28974336 The excuse of the highly-paid officials for turning a blind eye to this: We knew but we didn't dare mention it because we'd be accused of being racist! These were the same loony-left PC officials who snatched loved and cared for black children from a white couple because they admitted to having voted UKIP! Rerun the council elections now Labour party, if you dare! Even more people are on to your mind manipulation and your evil ways! The flawed system which put you back in power on significantly less of the poll (41% against 44% for UKIP) won't protect you next time around! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-27546344

Today's news on the street has it that "between five and ten" Labour MPs are considering defecting to UKIP, and are having talks. That's completely unprecedented because Labour thinks it can win a general election, so it's not the usual rats-deserting-sinking-ship syndrome (Unless, of course, they appreciate that it's the entire system that is sinking!). Are there really 10 principled MPs in New Labour who will put their country and their constituents before their own gain? Time will tell, but you can expect many more of the ruling elites to quit our broken system before year-end.

Apparently not, but I'd not have lost a sure bet on Sarah Palin or Alex Salmond: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/25/britains-top-politicians-yet-to-take-the-ice-bucket-challenge_n_5709755.html

panem et circenses Presumably Boris has done it already?

You are very wrong Tony. If Carswell were one of the establishment mob he'd have hung on in there instead of going back to his electors. He's an intelligent guy, and knows the way to really shake Cameron is to take the constituency from right under his nose, using the massed ranks of both Tory and Labour voters who've had enough of the system. If you want the same old system, and the same old crooks running it, then carry on supporting the establishment. But my bet is that a fair few of your members are wising-up too - listen to them! It will be a pity if our town has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century by other regions - but if that's how it has to be, then that's how it will be. I may be wrong but I think there are now enough educated people here who are no longer fooled. Generally the system has fostered dependency, and those of an independent turn of mind have upped sticks and left. That's been a tragedy for our area, but suited the two (and a bit) party system very well indeed. In fact we've been so gullible we are almost a joke in the South East - certainly our MPs are! Do yourself a favour and listen to what Carswell actually says. Forget the accent, and his former party, and tell me what you actually disagree with. He's not alone, and there are Labour MPs too who will come clean once they see that the days of the political elites are rapidly coming to an end. For many of them it will be simple self-preservation, but that something you can't accuse Carswell of. You are right in thinking that there is a class enemy of working people, but times have moved on, and our area has not. The class enemy is at Westminster, in Central London, and in the huge bureaucracies that both parties and their chummies in Brussels has spawned. You are being suckered by New Labour in just the same way as other parts of our country are being suckered by the Tory Party. The big swing to the LDs at the last general election was the result of many people waking up to this. But the LDs were shown in their true colours almost from the word go - a bought and paid-for part of the establishment! Things happen a lot faster these days, and you are about to see proof of this writ large. With your union roots I can well see that you'd be sceptical. But keep an open mind on this one because the establishment are going to try every trick in the book to hold on to power. You know damn well that it really doesn't make any difference to your membership who is in power, you get the same old excuses and nothing really happens. What the people at the top of the tree say, and what they actually do are two entirely different things. But, they keep most of the fruit, and we get the windfalls. Disaffected Tory voters may have kicked this one off, but more and more Labour voters are wising-up and supporting UKIP now. As it's a people's party that takes its instruction from the bottom and not the top, policy has moved distinctly leftward over the last year or so. But, in the end, that really doesn't matter, because what it's about is breaking the mould, and ending the cosy cartel that runs this country (and in which the EU now figures greatly). I like your Bismark analogy. The Bismark - like our system - was believed to be unsinkable. No warship sank the Bismark, but unity of purpose from people who didn't buy into the German government's myth rendered it unseaworthy! And, when the German capital ships were seen to be powerless, the course of history was changed.

Yes and no! Malcolm doesn't seem to agree with me, but I think it matters a great deal for us here in the S. E. Northumberland. But - like many of the big issues that do matter - no one seems to "give a monkeys". IMHO leaving the UK would be a disastrous mistake. Salmond is a snake oil salesman, and will blame the UK for the disaster he himself brings on. He's acting like the UK will agree to all his demands, when in fact any UK politico who doesn't play hard-ball with a Scotland that has turned its back on the UK won't last very long. The matter is out of party politics, and he'll get more or less the same treatment from whoever is in power. He's also a proven liar, and his gentlemanly undertaking to accept the poll result will be rapidly forgotten. He will continue to moan and blame the rest of the UK whatever; it's a no win situation for the UK! On the other hand Northumberland would greatly benefit from an independent Scotland, and if - as looks likely - the Scots don't buy Salmond's snake oil, he'll drain us of even more resources. So: Whole UK: A no-win situation. Northumberland: A win with Salmond : A (bigger) lose if Scotland decides to stay. Scotland: A disaster with Salmond (will take a while to become evident) : A win if they stay (but will moan even more) Salmond Personally: He won the instant he secured the referendum! Other views?

Everything UKIP has been telling you is wrong with the system - from a Tory MP! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28967904 He's exposed Cameron's cunning plan for a re-run of Harold Wilson's trick of keeping us in the then Common Market by pretending to secure a better deal. There is NO better deal, and it's not an economic union - it's a political one! It is designed to secure the continuing dominance of the ruling classes - people who produce nothing but live in luxury off the backs of people who do! It adds more layers of these drones, so that the layer you elect has even more excuses not to deliver the kind of fundamental change we need! The Eurocrats call it "post-democracy"; what they mean by this is that you are too thick to know what's best for you. The system's sole purpose is to replicate itself. The Labour Party wants everything the Tories have; their strategy is to let Cameron do their work for them, and say as little as possible on the EU. There was a time when Labour were opposed to the then Common Market, but New Labour saw an opportunity to feather their own nests and grabbed at it. I've recently been listening to speeches from the likes of Hugh Gaitskell warning of the perils of loss of UK sovereignty, he and others (like Enoch Powell) foresaw the problems, but the present Labour clique are bent on selling our country out - just like the Tories! My generation was fooled by the politicos on the Common Market - Ted Heath even admitted that he'd lied to secure the original vote. If we let this happen again we don't even deserve to be British! Wise up folks and VOTE UKIP - a party that belongs to its members, and were no one has been bought and paid for!

You've hit on one of life's great conundrums: If octopi have only eight legs how on earth do they mange ten tickles?

I'd have put money for the proposition that there'd be no connection whatsoever between that song and Glen Campbell, but... in the weird world of music, and way back in 1967, it seems... http://www.forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/glen-campbell-as-a-session-musician.161053/ How did we ever get by without the internet? But.. if we are moving to South Pacific it certainly wasn't Happy Talk on the night. The ScotNats might think he's A Wonderful Guy, but he's simply A Cock-Eyed Optimist because his estimates of oil revenue are so Bali High! He thinks the electorate have Got To Be Carefully Taught, but we all know he'll end up in a duet with the fat lady - singing This N-e-a-r-l-y Was Mine! If I'd paid a bit more attention to Scottish history at school I'd probably have been able to work Bloody Mary into this too! Though a prize should be offered to anyone who can hang Younger Than Springtime on either of the deadly(boring) duo! That said, I do detect an uncanny resemblance between Darling and Honey Bun - by way of said dead sheep! Oh.. and almost missed the show-stopper number: There Is Nothing Like A Dame - especially when you appoint them yourself, and then they report exactly what you want them to, when you refer yourself to them! Canny lot those Scot Nats; know exactly what they are getting themselves into - I expect! http://antioligarch.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/the-shame-of-britain-its-not-the-olympics/

Probably a few locals anticipating the rush to leave Salmond's ScotNat Shangi-La and making room . Most Scots with get up and go will - as usual - keep on going South though, leaving the moaning Wullies behind at haem to breed. Pity far too many of them are politicos; England would have been an altogether nicer place without any Scottish-bred PMs. And... this is a nation that is always moaning about the English having too much influence in their affairs! Anyway, I can think of many worse places to live than Bedlington, and quite a few of them aren't in the North East.

I'm told the Beeb guy was Glen Campbell, but he didn't even get to Perth let alone Phoenix, and certainly never to the point. He was Gentle On Salmond's Mind though! No True Grit in evidence at all, and it sure wasn't a Southern Night!

I can only tell you who lost - the BBC Scotland moderator who might as well not have been there! An utter shambles of a "debate", where 99% of the audience had obviously already made up their minds and weren't in an way interested in what anyone else had to say. The glee in the ScotNat camp when Darling said Scotland couldn't be prevented from using the Pound was telling - the Nats weren't at all interested in any of the follow-on gotchas. As for the participants, it was a contest between two socialists as to who could better waste other people's money - in Salmond's case the same money several times over (must have been taking lessons from Gordo there). On an issue which stirs such passion North of the border you'd have though there would be some passion in the debate. But, Darling was clearly reading the script most of the time, whilst Salmond was transparently following instruction from his spin doctor coaches. When he walked away from the podium jaws dropped - until it became clear that it was a pre-planned, spin doctor inspired, ruse to "psychologically embrace" the questioner. I hope the fees for all that coaching on presentation are going into English pockets. Could the whole thing be a cunning plan by Tory Central Office to permanently eliminate fourth or fifty Labour MPs from Westminster? If so the plan was likely doomed from the moment they failed to secure the services of Scotsman Anthony Charles Lynton Blair to champion the No cause! From then on a dead sheep could top the poll for the No campaign - and likely will!

Look, you get a certain choice of the best of two (maybe more), and some terribly good chocolates thrown into the mix! Nice people the Flemings! Ironic that a country that can't make up its mind about anything at all is first home to the EU - predicated on the notion that everyone can make their collective mind up on absolutely everything!

...in Science and Technology? http://www.goodcountry.org/overall Now all we need to do is to focus on our poor score in "International Peace and Security" Tony!

Sympathies to the family, but "Dickie" is/was the lesser of the brothers I think. A loss to the British film industry to now be missing the chief luvvie, but - in later years at least - he was just a bit too PC for me to think of as entirely "genuine". With David you are left in no doubt that the person talking is the person inside, but with Richard there was always the puzzlement of where the divide between actor and private personality might be. That's not to minimise some of the good work he did. I though his portrayal of Christie was pretty good, but there's the tiny suspicion that he may have been drawing a bit on his own character in that part. Not one of the all-time greats, but often passably good, and will still be missed.

You've forgotten the nepotism! http://order-order.com/2013/09/13/list-of-shame-every-mp-who-employs-a-family-member/ But seriously, you are doing a wonderful job there Ian, and are worth every penny of every increase you vote yourself and your family! It's just a pity that you are the laughingstock of the laughingstock, and make everyone in Wansbeck look like the singular ignoramus you are! Next time you chose to press home one of your withering attacks on the Tories take the trouble to check which party appointed the damnable person you are targeting! You managed to lose the NUM virtually ALL their membership during your short tenure; so keep on applying those management skills to the local economy, and keep on blaming someone else! There still seem to be people who you can take-in, but remember the old adage.

The Directory is now active. Any member should be able to submit a link. If you have a problem please PM me or Brett. Don't worry about a category, we'll develop those on the fly. Please keep your links relevant to local people, and remember if you are promoting your own web-pages then it's netiquette (only good manners) to provide a prominent back link from them to Bedlington.co.uk.

Links Page software now agreed on - so, a few days hence... hopefully... Thanks to West Bedlington councillors, or Adam, or whoever (you know who you are), for the original idea.